OCZ PC5000 EL reviewed

[FarFarAway]

Well scooting around and noticed this pretty useful review of the shiznitz RAM at Bit-Tech....some wootage to be had!!

The modules are rated at an astonishing PC5000, which is roughly 313MHz (626MHz DDR) in laymans terms. OCZ guarantee the memory to run at 3.0-4-4-10 at those speeds, and we suspect that you will be able to achieve more than what you pay for if OCZ's reputation is anything to go by. While the timings don't seem blisteringly quick, when you consider that they're rated at 313MHz, the timings are pretty respectable. Bear in mind that both Gigabyte's and ASUS' SLI motherboards were stable at front side bus speeds lower than what these modules are rated at, even after removing the memory limitation by running a divider.

As XMS is finding out this higher rated RAM certainly runs well at much higher HTT's!!

Bit-Tech used the Clawhammer core for their review, but the San Diego or Venice Core should be better

OCZ tell us that the modules use Samsung's TCCD DRAM chips, but you may find that some use the slightly older TCC5 DRAMs. This is not a problem, as the TCC5 DRAMs are just as good as TCCD, so long as they are binned correctly during the speed testing phase of manufacturing memory modules. There have been reports that TCC5 are not as good as TCCD. In general, that is true, but as we've said, if they are speed-binned correctly problems are not likely to come up.

Well there's something I didn't know...TCC5 being older than TCCD???

Here are Bit-Tech's results:

Corsair's 3200XL

Interestingly, Corsair's 3200 XL was not as fast as the OCZ PC5000 at 200MHz (400MHz DDR). We suspect that this is down to the fact that the OCZ PC5000 EL Platinum Series memory on test here is fine tuned for the DFI nF4 series motherboards, and thus performs slightly better at the same clock speed. Corsair's PC3200 XL were deserved winners of our excellence award a long while back, and we still feel that they're great memory modules for anyone looking for great bandwidth across a wide range of platforms.

We feel that the issues we came across when overclocking the Corsair memory was down to BIOS related problems, rather than poor memory modules. We tried a newer beta BIOS, which did seem to help the problem of moving away from CAS2.0, but we encountered some problems with system stability on that BIOS, even at 200MHz FSB, across all memory modules that were tested.

Well blow me if that aint a bit strange!!

So in conclusion: The OCZ PC5000 are modules for the extreme enthusiast who want to be approachin 300FSB with no problems!!

The price of the modules is set to be around £200-£220 in the UK when they land, and $300 in the USA. There are no stores in the UK that stock them right now, but Gladiator Computers are set to be one of the first to receive stock. They are expecting their stock to arrive in about two weeks time, and should be priced at £209.00 inc. VAT for the 1GB kit providing the exchange rate does not change dramatically in the next couple of weeks.

Corsair's PC3200 XL is very good value at £135 on Scan, but the question you have to ask yourself is whether you are planning to overclock your CPU past 250MHz FSB - that is where Corsair's PC3200 XL typically tops out. There is of course Corsair's PC4400 C25 modules, which are very competitively priced, but not quite as versatile as these OCZ modules. They're tweaked to run on the DFI nF4 series, and thus they should gain higher speeds, and performance, than most competing modules. That's certainly what we've found to be the case here.

Unfortunately, due to the price, they're modules that only the serious enthusiast who is looking for unparalleled performance at over 300MHz FSB is likely to consider. Everyone else should look for something with significantly better value.

I reckong this should be getting :anisx: recommended

 

[JN]

Nice...yes these modules do really rock. I went for the EL PC4800 Plat. stuff because i couldnt justify the extra cash just for 13mhz more.

My modules are running at 300mhz 2-4-4-10 with 3.0v which is very nice, and i havn't really played with them much yet.

 

[Dav0s]

tcc5 is older than tccd??

and can comebody PLEASE explain what the hell is speed binning